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Observatory,1 Governor Letcher, and others who were present, joined in the reception of Lee, standing.
He was then greeted by the President, who made a brief speech, in which he announced to the Colonel that the Convention had, on that day, on the nomination of Governor Letcher, appointed him General-in-chief of the Commonwealth; to which the recipient replied in a few words, accepting the so-called honor.2 In time, Lee became the General-in-chief of all the armies in rebellion against his Government, at whose expense he had been educated, and whose bread he had eaten for more than thirty years.3
No man had stronger inducements to be a loyal citizen than Robert E. Lee.
His ties of consanguinity and association with the founders of the Republic, and the common gratitude of a child toward a generous and loving foster-parent, should have made him hate treason in its most seductive forms, instead of embracing it in its most hideous aspect.
He was a grandson of the “Lowland beauty,” spoken of by the biographer as the object of Washington's first love.
He was a son of glorious “Legion Harry Lee,” who used his sword gallantly in the old war for independence and the rights of man, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and especially in the Southern States, and who was the leader of an army to crush an insurrection.4 He was intimately associated with the Washington family, having married the daughter of an adopted son of the Father of his Country (George Washington Parke Custis); and his residence, “Arlington House,” was filled with furniture, and plate, and china, and pictures, from Mount Vernon, the consecrated home of the patriot.
It was one of the most desirable residences in the country.
Around it spread out two hundred acres of lawn, and forest, and garden; and before it flowed the Potomac, beyond which, like a panorama, lay the cities of Washington and Georgetown.
A charming family made this home an earthly paradise.
The writer had been a frequent guest there while, the founder of Arlington House (Mr. Custis) was yet alive.
He was there just before the serpent of secession beguiled the later master.
It was his ideal of a home that should make the possessor grateful for the blessings, political and social, that flow from our beneficent Government, under which all rights are fully secured to every citizen.
War came and wrought great changes in the relations of men and things.
The writer visited Arlington House again with two traveling companions (F. J. Dreer and Edwin Greble, of Philadelphia), not as a guest, but as an observer of events that sadden his heart while he makes the record.
It was just before sunset on a beautiful day in early May, 1865, when the possessor of Arlington5 had been engaged for four years in endeavors to
1 See note 3, page 894.
2 Richmond Enquirer, April 24, 1861.
3 He was graduated at West Point Military Academy in June, 1825.
4 The “Whisky insurrection” in Western Pennsylvania.
5 The Arlington estate was not the actual property of Colonel Lee. The late Mr. Custis, by his Will, left it to his daughter, Mrs. Lee, during her life, when it was to become the property of her eldest son, who also became a general in the army in rebellion against his Government. The property, therefore, Was not liable to confiscation. It came into the possession of the Government when it was sold to liquidate a claim for unpaid taxes. The grounds near the mansion were dedicated by the Government as the resting-place of the remains of soldiers, a few of whom belonged to the Confederate Army. Among them were the remains of a large number of colored soldiers. The whole number of graves at that time was a little more than seven thousand.
On another part of the estate was a freedman's village, containing about one hundred neat dwellings, a church, and a school-house. There were residing the families of freedmen who were mostly employed on the Government farms in the neighborhood. A greater portion of the one thousand acres of the Arlington estate was then under excellent cultivation as such farms. The village originated in an order from the Secretary of War, directing the then commandant at Arlington to supply the aged negroes on the estate with subsistence. Mr. Custis, in his Will, directed that his slaves should all be set free five years after his decease, which occurred in October, 1857. It is said that when Colonel Lee abandoned his home and his flag to make war on his Government, he took with him all the slaves excepting the aged and infirm. The writer saw some of the latter whom he had known when Mr. Custis was master of Arlington House. Among these was Ephraim, the butler; Daniel, the coachman; and “Aunt Eleanor,” who was the nurse of Mrs. Lee in her infancy. These were all over seventy years of age, and were well cared for by their true friends, the officers of the Government.
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